HTC U12 life hands-on review

Introduction

Remember when HTC had a really good story as to why the HTC U12+ carries the "Plus" moniker in the absence of a vanilla version? Well, we do and we're not above bringing it up, purely for the comedic effect. HTC was quite adamant that the U12+ would be the sole representative of the U12 family. And the "Plus" suffix was simply there as a way of letting consumers know that the phone was good enough to compete with any other smartphone that carries the "Plus" moniker like the iPhone 8 Plus or the Galaxy S9+.

Enter the HTC U12 Life - the proverbial wrecking ball to that particular PR-infused stack of cards, that is the original U12+ naming story. All joking aside, HTC hasn't really been doing all too well lately, so we are pretty happy to see any new model unveiling.

HTC U12 life specs

• Body: Plastic (plastic frame and back panel); 158.5 x 75.4 x 8.3 mm; 175 g
• Screen: 6.0-inch, 2160x1080 IPS LCD, 402 PPI
• Rear Camera: 16MP, f/2.0, PDAF primary, 5MP depth sensor; 4K video
• Front Camera: 13MP, f/2.0; 1080p video
• Chipset: 14nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, Kryo 260 (4x Cortex-A73 @ 1.8GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.6GHz), Adreno 509
• Memory: 4/6GB RAM, 64GB/128GB storage + microSD (up to 512GB)
• OS: Android 8.1; HTC Sense
• Battery: 3600mAh
• Connectivity: Hybrid dual SIM, 4G, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS/GLONASS, Wi-Fi Direct, NFC, USB 2.0 Type-C, headphone jack
• Misc: Fingerprint sensor

Just, be sure to adjust your expectations accordingly. The U12 Life, which is HTC's fancy way of denoting its lite devices, lives up to its name. It is a solid mid-ranger, equipped just well enough to go against some current popular competitors from the likes of Xiaomi or Nokia.

For that reason alone, the U12 Life is worth checking out in more detail. Plus, unlike your typical "lite" variant, it doesn't necessarily follow its bigger brother in design and internals. The U12 Life is more of a distinct device, a unique offer, on its own.